Jefferson, Chatham girls lacrosse players heading west for college on National Signing Day
Avery Young has always had a special sporting relationship with her father, Chris. Chris Young played baseball at Fair Lawn and Kean University. He's been Avery's chief driver to lacrosse tournaments, and she often writes quotes from him on the tape she uses to wrap her sticks.
More recently, Chris Young served as his daughter's guide through the college recruiting process.
Before Young, a midfielder at Jefferson, verbally committed to the University of Oregon, she had to think about what it would be like to play without her parents, Chris and Jennifer Young, being in the stands.
Avery Young will sign her National Letter of Intent with the Ducks on Wednesday, one of dozens of Morris and Sussex county student-athletes transferring their words to ink as the early period opens.
The NLI is essentially a one-year contract in which a student promises to attend the college and remain academically eligible in exchange for athletics-based financial aid.
Football players can sign their NLI December 21, 22 and 23.
National Signing Day 2022: Which NJAC student-athletes signed on Wednesday?
"It was horrible. It was very stressful," said Young, a senior midfielder who had a team-high 70 goals as Jefferson went undefeated in the NJGILL Colonial North last spring.
"First of all, there are so many ups and downs. You think one thing and then, 'Wait, I don't know.' There was a lot of traveling. The summer going into junior year, we spent the whole time at camps and prospect days, and in the fall, there were a lot of prospect days too. There was a lot of lacrosse, and no set path."
Chatham's Jane Middleton to UC Berkeley
Chatham senior midfielder Jane Middleton had a similarly arduous process − "showcase after showcase after club tournament and specific schools' camps" − before choosing the University of California at Berkeley. Middleton hadn't thought about going to the West Coast until Cal head coach Brooke Eubanks reached out to Building Blocks Lacrosse coach Samantha Warner.
Due to NCAA rules, Middleton wasn't even allowed to contact the Cal coaches directly until Sept. 1 of her junior year. By then, she'd already gone to a camp in Berkeley.
She loved the campus, the academics, and even the year-round mild weather. Middleton committed to Cal on Oct. 29, 2021.
But then Eubanks and one of her assistants left.
"We were worried our commitments wouldn't be honored," Middleton said. "With staffing changes, they could decommit the whole class if they had other recruits we want to bring with them. Nobody was thinking, 'Do we want to leave?" It's "Do they still want us?"
New head coach Jennifer Wong accepted all the recruits. Middleton will also sign her NLI on Wednesday.
"I'm hoping there's going to be a little bit of weight lifted off my shoulders," said Middleton, who had 10 goals, 11 assists and 11 draw controls as Chatham won the Morris County Tournament and Group 3 titles last spring.
Growing Pac-12 lacrosse programs
There are no players from New Jersey on Oregon's current roster, but Cal has five − and recently added assistant coach Bridget Ballard, who led Chatham in points in 2014, 2015 and 2016. Coincidentally, Ballard's mother was Middleton's kindergarten teacher.
Middleton played with Bears freshman midfielder Avery Hoeft (Westfield) at BBL, and also knows freshman midfielder Amanda Pio (Mendham).
Young and Middleton will go up against another Morris County native, USC head coach Lindsey Munday (Mountain Lakes), in Pac-12 play. Oregon and Cal finished tied at the bottom of the Pac-12 last spring, and had six wins combined overall.
But that's part of what attracted Young to the program, the opportunity to help the Ducks progress like Jefferson has.
"I wanted to be part of a program that hasn't gone to where I know they could, to grow with it," said Young, whose father has already promised to watch every Oregon game on the Pac-12 Network.
"As an athlete, I do better being able to grow as a player with my teammates, rather than just being expected to do something. Jefferson has done that for me as well, and I definitely would not be the player I am without it."
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Signing Day: Jefferson, Chatham girls lacrosse players ink NLI
